Troubled school shuts doors

31 July 2004 — 10:00am

The Victorian Government has endorsed a decision by one of Melbourne's most troubled government schools to shut down, forcing its students to switch to other schools.

Moreland City College will close at the end of the year. The Coburg school's 270 students, from prep to year 12, will be transferred to other schools, although a new school may open on the site in the future.

State Education Minister Lynne Kosky applauded the school's decision to close as "courageous and mature".

Advertisement

But she insisted that the decision was taken by the school's council and staff and was unrelated to a new State Government policy to identify and intervene in the running of struggling schools. She said the aim of the new policy was to keep schools open, not close them.

Ms Kosky said the Moreland school's problems pre-dated the policy, which was designed to lift the performance of schools, not close them. She said Moreland City College was a victim of Kennett government school amalgamations in the late 1990s. "They had it forced on them, pulling the primary and the secondary in together, without any assistance to move forward."

Announcing the school's dramatic move in a letter to parents yesterday, principal Margaret Lacey cited changing demographics, competition between schools and the growth of independent schools among the reasons.

The school has also been plagued by bad publicity over vandalism by students to school buses and a VCE exam security problem.

The school's enrolment has fallen by more than half in the past four years, and year 12 numbers were set to plunge from 34 this year to fewer than 20 next year.

Ms Kosky said the falling enrolments meant the school was unable to offer the kind of education it wanted to.

Ms Lacey singled out competition between schools and "the policies of parental choice, where parents choose schools that they see are going to suit their aspirations".

She said the trend towards judging schools on league tables of VCE results was causing a polarisation in public education.

"There's always going to be a loser if there's a winner," she said. "For every one of those schools that get on the top of the league table, there's another one that struggles . . . on the bottom because some-one is taking the other students."

The school has suffered from bad publicity. Two years ago, seven mini-buses were damaged in the school grounds by year 12 students, and last year the Government ordered the school to improve security surrounding VCE exams.

"When a school's got a shaky reputation and something like that goes in the paper, the public gets their impression confirmed in their minds," Ms Lacey said.

"Once something has got a bad name, it's very hard to shake it."

The school has a diverse cultural make-up, with more than half the enrolment from the Lebanese community. Asked if the ethnic mix had been a factor in the school's closure, Ms Lacey said that if it was the case, "it's been a factor externally from people looking in. Within here, people see people as people."

Ms Lacey said it was difficult for a principal to close a school. "You're undoing all your own struggle," she said, "and that's what's terribly difficult."

The Government has given a commitment to continue public education on the site. In her letter to parents, Ms Lacey said it was likely a new school might open on the site "within a year or two" and students might want to return.